Top score in new music reviews this week goes to Mark Lanegan Band for Blues Funeral.Handout
/ From Gazette files

New album: Here's Die Antwoord lead vocalist Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er of the South African rap group Die Antwoord in concert at the Metropolis in Montreal on Monday, October 25th 2010.Vincenzo D'Alto / THE GAZETTE

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MONTREAL - Here is this week's list of minireviews of new music releases, by Gazette staff and contributors.

The Fray

Scars & Stories

Epic

U2 lite, or maybe the poor man’s Coldplay? You choose. But it doesn’t matter, because you could listen to the 12 offerings from this Denver band’s third album – produced by Brendan O’Brien –

a dozen times and still not be able to match the titles to the songs. That’s because most of these tracks are so undistinguished that they evaporate as soon as they leave the speakers, while your mind seeks any possible diversion. Corporate arena-rock clangers mix with soppy piano-and-strings ballads featuring falsetto vocals, all of it aimed clearly at hyper-emotional teens or film and TV rights. When you hear a Duran Duran-ish sort-of-rocker like Here We Are or a near-stirring chord riff like the one in 48 to Go, you feel almost grateful. Almost.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Podworthy: 48 to Go

BP

Of Montreal

Paralytic Stalks

Polyvinyl

At what point does a compelling musical adventure become unfocused self-indulgence? The question hangs in the air with the 11th studio album by Kevin Barnes and company. But if the query seems to suggest a thumbs-down, it really doesn’t. In a wilfully uncommercial effort, the Athens, Ga., group might be testing our patience with pretentious, atonal hokum like the hostile collage Exorcismic Breeding Knife and the rambling, 13-minute prog-ish closer Authentic Pyrrhic Remission, but there are challenging treasures in the group’s kitchen-sink approach. Look for echoes of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy in We Will Commit Wolf Murder and Spiteful Intervention, and check out the robotic disco underpinning of Ye, Renew the Plaintiff. The steel guitar-and-Broadway chaos of Wintered Debts could go either way.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Podworthy: Ye, Renew the Plaintiff

BP

Die Antwoord

Ten$ion

Downtown/Zef

The music of South Africa’s Die Antwoord is difficult to explain. Superficially, it’s a blend of hip hop and ’90s techno. But that doesn’t capture the cacophonous insanity of Ten$ion. The album is complex and multi-layered, but in a chaotic way, like a pile of nonsense in a hoarder’s garage. Basically, this is the music the voices in your head listen to when they’re not ranting about chemtrails and the Illuminati. Lead vocalist Ninja delivers possibly ironic gangsta rhymes in a menacingly guttural Afrikaans accent on songs like Fok Julle Naaiers. And every verse from the comically high voice of Yo-Landi Vi$$er feels like you’re being threatened by Tinkerbell, especially on Baby’s on Fire. The production is heavy on retro rave beats and urgent electronic blasts, creating a bizarre, aggressive but entirely captivating album.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Podworthy: Fok Julle Naaiers

AK

Mark Lanegan Band

Blues Funeral

4AD

Mark Lanegan has been more prolific as a collaborator than as a solo artist, lending his shadowy baritone to Queens of the Stone Age, the Gutter Twins, Soulsavers and demonic/angelic duets with Isobel Campbell. Those partnerships mask the unbending solitude at the heart of his own writing: the magnificent Blues Funeral traverses isolated streets, lonely seas and cemetery pathways. Lanegan’s Grim Reaper growl is the perfect vehicle for these songs, and the range recalls his resumé: Soulsavers’ spiritual blues (Bleeding Muddy Water), Queens’ all-consuming stoner buzz (Riot in My House), the Campbell albums’ dusty roots (Deep Black Vanishing Train). Add the relentless shuddering dread of The Gravedigger’s Song and Ode to Sad Disco’s after-hours pulse, and it’s hard to imagine a shade of darkness that Lanegan wouldn’t wear like a regal robe.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Podworthy: The Gravedigger’s Song

JZ

Sharon Van Etten

Tramp

Jagjaguwar

After the first listen to Warsaw, Tramp’s opening track, you might think you’ve fully absorbed its garage jangle and stomp. Then it hits you: the way Sharon Van Etten’s voice can sound lilting or sneering, yearning or deadpan, depending on the angle from which you approach her deceptively elemental songs. As a member of the National, producer Aaron Dessner knows how to reveal layers of meaning with repeated visits: once the track’s haunting slide guitar comes into sharp focus, a touching bit of melancholy pierces the toughened exterior of Serpents. One needs to be patient with Tramp, and after a half-dozen spins, some heavy-handed percussion remains distracting. But as ghostly halos start to emerge from Give Out’s earthy introspection, Van Etten offers a steadfast argument against instant gratification.

Almost Done!

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